The short version: We’re home!
The long version: It wasn’t exactly according to plan…
We were scheduled to depart Joburg at 7:15p on Wednesday with stops in Paris, Houston and Seattle before finally reaching Portland at 10:14p on Thursday. One minute shy of 36 hours…
Our flight to Paris was delayed. In classic airline fashion, we all got strung along with the delay being 60 to 90 more minutes the entire time. At about 11:30p, they announced that since we wouldn’t depart by midnight, the crew was required to get 12 hours rest. We were also told that all hotels were full and that Air France would not be providing accommodations for the night. But they would give us snacks and water and blankets. We were expected to stay in the terminal. This caused a minor uproar – though honestly not as bad as I thought it would be. Some travelers quickly discovered that on a weekday there were plenty of hotel rooms available. Travelers were advised not to leave, but if they insisted, they would get any bags off the plane. Hotel room reimbursement was not promised; it would have to be pursued through Air France.
We got busy on the phone with both Alaska Airline (we’d booked the trip on miles through them) and Air France. By midnight it was clear that we would miss our connection to Houston and we wanted to get rebooked as soon as possible (and not have to wait in line among several hundred travelers with similar problems). Alaska said that Air France needed to rebook us since they were the delayed flight. Air France said that Alaska had to rebook us since they had booked the trip. Nice.
I finally found an Air France agent at the gate who was willing and able to help. She found a flight from Paris to Atlanta and a connection on to Portland that would get in at 9:30p – 44 minutes earlier than the original itinerary. She secured seats but could not officially book it until our flight was in the air and scheduled to get in with enough time for the connection.
Finally we got word that we would be boarding a bit after 1a. They must have gotten a replacement crew. The agent confirmed that she would book our seats once we were in the air and that we would just need to pick up boarding passes at the Transfer desk in Paris. We sat on the tarmac for a while and didn’t take off until a bit after 2a. We weren’t sure if that left enough time for the connection.
We landed in Paris and rushed to get to the Transfer desk to try and get as near to the front of the line as possible. There were three agents working with five open stations. Air France, if you have an Airbus380 with a capacity of 530 (!) passengers that’s 7 hours late, and because it’s an 10+ hour flight you have almost HALF A DAY to know that hundreds of passengers with ruined itineraries will be at your desk when it lands, WHY DON’T YOU HAVE EVERY STATION COVERED? The flight to Atlanta was scheduled out at 1:35p. It was about 12:40p when we got in line and there were about 10 groups in front of us. Progress was s l o w. I jumped out of line to try a self service kiosk. Leena stayed in line.
The first machine was super slow. But, it found us and confirmed we had seats on the flight to Atlanta. I need to print boarding passes. Because it’s an international flight, you have to scan your passport at the kiosk. I scan mine. It then says, sorry, you’ll have to go to the transfer desk.
I try another machine. This one’s working fast, so that’s better. I go through the same steps. One of the screens says to proceed to the gate for a boarding pass. I’m skeptical that I can get through security without a boarding pass. I get through the passport check successfully, but I need Leena’s passport. I wave her out of line, but then realize this is a bad idea so I wave her back in. I run over and get her passport. I scan hers, but it kicks me out as before.
I try again. And again. Now it’s not even letting me to the passport scanning step. I stop an Air France agent. She says I have to start by putting in my e-ticket number (instead of scanning my passport). She leaves before the kiosk comes back that it can’t find my ticket number. (I’d guess this is because we’ve been rebooked and therefore have a new number.) It’s now 12:55p. The line Leena is in has literally moved up by one person (NICE JOB AIR FRANCE). There are probably 100 people in line behind us. What a mess.
I’m not even sure why, but I try a third machine. I take a picture on my phone of the screen that says to proceed to the gate for a boarding pass. Perhaps security will let us through with that? And then… it takes my passport scan. It takes Leena’s. I think I have it, but I get an error: they can’t print our boarding passes from Atlanta to Portland. Ah!!! I don’t care! I’ll do that in Atlanta! But on this screen there’s a back button. I hit it. And instead of going back to the previous screen, it goes to a screen with an option to print boarding passes. It’s too good to be true. I hit the button. They print. Amazing. It’s a bit after 1p. I scurry back over to Leena waving the boarding passes and she jumps out of line (that still has not moved). Other travelers are amazed (or, I want to think that they must have been).
We get through security and get to the gate just as the end of the boarding line is going through. Leena notices that the boarding passes say “Premium Economy”. I dismiss this as propaganda: they’re trying to make us feel better about their economy class by calling it premium. The gate agent scans our boarding passes and tells us that they’re not right. I have no idea what was wrong with them, but they were good enough to get us to the gate. (And I highly doubt we could have gotten through security without them.) They then print new boarding passes on the spot, including a pair for Atlanta to Portland.
As we board the plane, we learn that Premium Economy is a real thing. Wider seat. More recline. More legroom. Economy was full so they had to upgrade us. Totally awesome.
In Atlanta, we have to retrieve my bag, clear customs, and recheck the bag. The bag doesn’t come. It missed the connection in Paris. No worries though, it’s really just laundry waiting to happen. The flight to Portland is brutal: we’re 30+ hours in, we’re in the second to last row, and for some reason I think everyone on the flight had to visit the bathroom twice and bump me on the way by. Most of the time I had people crowding me from the aisle as they waited for the bathroom. But we make it.
Milo was so awesome when we got home. He went from asleep to bewildered to super excited in about a minute. So much fun. The bag was delivered a day later with more tags on it than you can imagine. Hopefully the long post on the air travel roller coaster wasn’t too boring!